All images © Richard Stonehouse/WWF-UK
Inspirational visitor attraction launches at charity’s new Living Planet Centre.
Visitors to WWF’s new UK HQ in Woking will be in for a treat when the charity opens the doors of its new Living Planet Centre to the public in November. The conservation charity is launching the WWF Experience, a fun and engaging installation in the entrance its new building, designed to connect visitors with the charity’s conservation work across the globe, and bring the natural world to life through sensory interactions.
Jason Bruges Studio was commissioned by WWF to design and create the WWF Experience, which consists of four immersive zones, each reflecting a different environmental theme and key area of the organisation’s important work – forests, rivers, oceans and wildlife. Guests are invited to explore each environment and are taken on a journey to discover, learn, connect and interact with these unique habitats in a variety of different ways.
Each zone is designed to reflect the sights, sounds, scents and ambiance of their different environments. Large-scale display screens play footage that has been exclusively commissioned in partnership with the BBC and each zone has its own distinctive soundtrack, created by the acclaimed composer William Goodchild. Visitors to the Living Planet Centre, both adults and children, are also encouraged to take part in a range of exciting challenges, quizzes and other interactive games designed to educate and inspire.
Sam Hoey, Head of Studio at Jason Bruges Studio, stated:
“From the initial meetings right through to the final touches on site, the experience has been conceived to feel part of the building and complement the beautiful and highly sustainable nature of the Living Planet Centre by Hopkins Architects. Our team have worked with WWF and alongside the project team over the last few years developing and detailing these amazing structures and the immersive experience that will happen as the zones are explored by visitors young and old.”
He added:
“This project with the WWF is the culmination of a long-standing relationship that the studio has built with the conservation charity over several years. It follows the success of the Panda Eyes installation, a Brit Insurance Design of the Year nominee, originally created for the WWF Pandamonium charity auction in 2010.”“The materials we used have been chosen to meet FSC certification, and the combination of form, texture, lighting, screen arrangements, content and interaction triggers create a rich layering of information. While the four zones can be seen as ‘family’ externally with their conical shapes, they all have internal detailing and textures to represent the key aspects of WWF’s work. Visitors can walk or crawl into the zones, smell specially developed scents and explore by peeping into small screen enclosures. They can touch specially cast triggers, and watch films arrayed across screens as well as learning more via touch screens and e-ink displays of text and data feeds.”
He concluded:
“The WWF Experience is something that excited and captivated us from the outset; we were thrilled with the challenge of designing and building something that symbolically portrayed the WWF brand and the organisation’s incredible work around the world. The project required the full breadth of expertise from the studio and we all pooled together to deliver an installation that we feel accurately reflects WWF’s core values, identity and the magnitude and far reaching scope of its endeavours.”
About Jason Bruges Studio
Jason Bruges Studio, formed in April 2002, designs and builds interactive and engaging installations across three key sectors; architecture, art and brands. The studio produces innovative and engaging spaces that connect people with their surrounding environments. Based in Old Street, London, the company has a design studio and workshop in-house.
The Studio is a multi-disciplinary and experienced collective of architects, lighting designers, electronic and mechanical engineers, programmers, industrial designers and a high calibre management team, who all collaborate to develop highly innovative and pioneering spaces for clients. Each project features a bespoke, design that combines high levels of environmental awareness and technical skill.
Recent Jason Bruges Studio projects include the spectacular Aerial Dynamics installation in Coca-Cola’s pavilion at the Olympic Park and the new Bloomberg Connects interactive visitor information system at Tate Modern. Among the Studio’s international portfolio are projects such as an interactive artwork in a shopping mall in Shenyang, China, a public artwork for a new development in Toronto, Canada, four Olympic Games installations in London, and an interactive lounge at San Diego International Airport.
www.jasonbruges.com
About WWF
WWF is one of the world’s largest independent conservation organisations, with more than five million supporters and a global network active in more than one hundred countries. We’re working to create solutions to the most serious environmental issues facing our planet, so that people and nature can thrive. Through our engagement with the public, businesses and government, we focus on safeguarding the natural world, tacking climate change and changing the way we live. Find out more about our work, past and present at www.wwf.org.uk
